


Various Hornblower Drabbles

by Muccamukk



Category: Hornblower (TV)
Genre: Archiving from LJ, Drabble Collection, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-05-12
Updated: 2004-06-28
Packaged: 2018-12-01 08:17:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11482353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muccamukk/pseuds/Muccamukk
Summary: Crossposted from hh100. Mostly h/c.





	1. Sounds

Archie didn't know why he still bothered to return, for his mother’s sake perhaps; she had little left. It was over now at least. Shore leave had finally ended.

Now he stood on the quarterdeck and let himself fall back into the rhythm of the ship. The wind and the waves and the creak of timbers were countered by the bosun’s curses. Between great cabin and aft rail Captain Pellew wrote and conducted all at once.

Archie sighed as the familiar sounds, the rich voice, soothed the echo of his father’s words from his mind. He was home at last.


	2. Fever?

It didn’t hurt anymore. Horatio frowned, trying to understand. _Has the surgeon dosed me again? Laudanum didn't help before._ It had barely blunted the deep, searing pain in his chest and leg.

 _How long have I lain here? It must be days, maybe a week._ He had lost track of time.

“I am going mad,” he said aloud.

Someone laughed. “Yes, well, talking to yourself is a good sign of that.”

He knew that voice. Could it be?

“Archie?”

 _No,_ he told himself, _it’s not possible. I must have taken a fever._

“I’m here, Horatio. Don’t worry, you’re home now.”


	3. On the Wings of a Storm

The storm had been the worst Captain Pellew had ever seen. Half the crew had sworn that it was the world ending. No one expected they would survive.

But they had.

“Where the devil are we?” he demanded, not expecting an answer.

None of it made sense. If he had read the sun and stars aright, and he always did, they should be in West Africa. Yet this was neither Africa nor any place of which he could conceive.

Who could imagine a white city rising out of a mountain? Who would dream of a land of dragons and elves?


	4. Burning Up

Even in just a nightshirt, with the great windows open to the cold Atlantic night, Edward could not bear the heat.

He had insisted on staying here, refusing to be carted below and ensnared in the domain of that incompetent sot of a surgeon. The doctor had protested, but Mr. Bracegirdle supported his captain, as always.

They were his only visitors. The marines had orders to let no one else in. There was little point risking the whole damned ship. He had not heard anyone attempting to enter, in any case. Not while he was lucid.

They too were afraid.


	5. Freedom

Archie floated lazily on his back, water lapping gently against his skin.

Times like these were far too rare, with the Indy becalmed and nothing pressing to be done.

It was strange how only a year ago he had craved action. He had had to show that prison had not ruined him, had to prove himself a man. And he still did, really, but not now.

For these few moments, he would allow duty and obligation to drift from his mind. He'd ignore Horatio splashing about near rudder and his proposed inspection of the hull and bask in Mediterranean sun.


	6. Waiting

Captain Pellew paced the quarterdeck, hands clasped behind his back, face a stony mask. His officers wisely kept their distance.

Midshipman Hornblower had missed his rendezvous by over a day, and the captain could not justify holding the _Indefatigable_ here much longer. If Hornblower did not arrive soon, Pellew would be forced to leave his boy behind.

 _My boy_. Sometime in the year they had served together it had become natural to think of him so. In the privacy of his mind, he had started to refer to the young officer as he did the children of his own flesh.


End file.
